Had it drilled into me as a kid to never shoot in the direction of houses. On a recent hunt I missed two birds because I stopped my swing and shot behind them, the birds were crossing within 10 yrds in front of me and headed for a distant farmyard across the road. After the second one I thought about it and wondered if the shot would have even gotten anywhere close to the farm even if I had shot that way.

So my question is how far can a load of #6 shot be expected to travel?

what do you all say, is it okay to shoot towards a house if it is well out of range?

by the way the gun club I belong to the trap range faces a farm and horse barn, they get shot at all day long. they do have shot size restrictions and we lost our hand traps because someone disobeyed the rules and peppered some horses.

Size 7.5 shot will carry up to about 220 to 235 yards depending on angle of elevation, muzzle velocity, wind direction, etc. Most shooting ranges with a maximum shot size of 7.5 will have a minimum of 300 yards to be on the safe side. Number 6 shot will carry about 30 yards farther than 7.5 shot under the same conditions.

_________________Some shooters say that chokes don't matter........ until your choke selection is different from what they recommend.

I have shot at trap ranges where one shoots directly at farmsteads, interstate highways, trains and of course airplanes at The Grand. All these are, of course, well outside the shot fall zone. So, while it feels a little odd, it is not dangerous. As for your hunting situation, here is some info on maximum shot flight distance to determine what is safe. This is for lead shot - hevishot, steel, etc. would be different.

From http://www.rangeinfo.orgA French ballistics expert, General Journee, years ago worked out a formula to the effect that the maximum range in yards equals 2200 times the shot diameter in inches. When the gun is held at a horizontal position or only slightly elevated, this formula gives the maximum range of shot sizes as shown below.

No. 2 - 330 yards

No. 4 - 286 yards

No. 6 - 242 yards

No. 7 1/2- 209 yards

No. 8 - 198 yards

_________________"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." - Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)

I recently printed out some diagrams from a web site that showed details for a skeet field/trap field combo. One of the interesting ones was a Shotfall Danger zone diagram. it showed the max at 300 yards.

I do believe my hunter safety course said under the "right" circumstances shot can kill @ 400 yds. That seems really far to me but I would rather pass on a bird than piss someone off hitting their home or breaking a window. As they say better safe than sorry. Crazier thing have happened. Just look up hunting incidents in your state DNR. I can't imagine how half these people have gotten injured.

North Dakota requires no shooting within 440 yards of a Farm house that is occupied (lived in). Thats there Game Departments estimate of "safe" distance.

I've always thought that such laws were stupid because they don't take into consideration which direction a person is shooting. You could stand right beside the farm house and shoot a million times and never endanger the farm house or anyone inside if your gun is pointed away from the house. In fact, many shooting ranges all over the country commonly have shooting fields built within 100-200 feet of the front door of their clubhouse and they have no problem with that. Naturally, the shooters are shooting away from the clubhouse.

_________________Some shooters say that chokes don't matter........ until your choke selection is different from what they recommend.

Some of the best hunting is dusting and frolicking inside the shelter belt that surounds the leaward side of the farmhouse. Every farmhouse has a shelter belt do to harsh winds and driving snow. Trees, thick grass and thick under brush. It's good for the farmhouse and those pwesky widell wanimows wit wery wong wails (tails). 50% of my mid-west pheasant hunting is done in legal shelter belts.
My Dad and I have flushed very nice deer while pushing Pheasant, nice little bonus being 30 yrd from a full sprinting 4 point whitetail with his white flag (tail) upright and getting smaller with every hoofprint he makes.
Good place to watch for antler sheds while wunting wiley wing wencks with wery wong wails! I love the Mid-west......show ya some pictures sometime that prove what words can only come close to describing. Bird populations compared to Wa.....Only duck hunters understand the word "flock".

This duck blind is on the lake I hunt. The building in the background ain't too far away and neither is that truck over to the right traveling down a four lane U.S. highway. It's close enough that you can see the power lines if you look closely.